The Night Watch - Pride Month Story

The Night Watch

Bruno startled me when he sat down, the rocking of the boat had a tendency to put me to sleep. I’d been keeping watch for a couple hours now and I guess my time was up.

“Hey I woke up a little early, you want me to take over?”

“Oh no that’s alright I’ll do my time if you wanna try and sleep some more,”

“Well I’m awake now, no point in wrestling myself to sleep for 20 minutes. I’ll just keep you company.” Bruno relaxed in his seat and got comfortable. He had a way of filling up all  the space he was near, I swear it was suffocating. I stood up and walked around a little to shake off the sleep.

“So how’d you draw night duty this time, I swear it’s always us two,”

“I- uh I actually volunteered this time…” Bruno’s body seemed to shrink; he brought his hands into his lap and he slouched his shoulders forward. 

“What?” I stopped and spun in my tracks. “Are you nuts? This sucks, I hate night duty,”

“I don’t know, we spend all day running around working. I kinda like just being up here with nothing to do and no one around.” Bruno’s eyes were darting around the floor and I was starting to get the feeling that something was bothering him.

“Yea I get that, it’s crazy to think this place is quiet ever, you don’t really talk much during the day, what’s up with that?” At this point I realized I was still just standing over him and felt like I was interrogating him. I decided to relax and sit down next to him again. “To be honest man, you’re cool, if you talked more during the day I bet people would talk back more than you think,”

Bruno looked up at me smiling, but then immediately looked back down. “Thanks, but I don’t really know what I’d talk to most of those guys about, all they ever talk about is how much they miss their girls back home.” I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at that one. 

“Not having a girl back home isn’t a big deal, man.  I’ve never really had one either. Just stick by me, we can talk about anything you want.”

“You’ve never had a girlfriend? I don’t know if I believe you…”

“Nope, never had a girl to be honest, never really understood the obsession, I’ve always been much happier with the guys.”

Bruno relaxed a bit, and he took an unsteady breath. His hands were shaking and he looked like he was sweating. “So have you ever been with a woman then?”

To be honest I didn’t know what to do. I spent a lot of time on this ship building up my reputation, but the honest answer was no. I signed up as a crew member on this ship just so I could get away from the girls in my town. My legs started to get jittery so I started to get up and pace around again. “Oh you know, nothing serious, why? Have you?”

“Just one… but… ah never mind,” Bruno started to look off the side of the boat at the stars now.

“Come on man, I’ll tell you what. You be straight with me and I’ll be straight with you,” This got Bruno to turn back to me, he still wouldn’t look up but that was enough for me I guess. “I’ve never actually been with a girl, tried once but... uhh- I couldn’t do it,”

“You couldn’t do it? What does that me-”

“I couldn’t get hard man! Been too scared to try since, the girl laughed me out of the room.”

“Oh man… I’m sorry I didn’t mean to pry. I didn’t like it when I was with a girl. It got hard but I was thinking about other stuff,”

“What other stuff?”

“...her brother” I stopped pacing, standing in front of Bruno and took a breath. My heart was racing for some reason and I felt myself getting warm. I started to get uncomfortable in the silence so I just said the first thing that came to my mind.

“Oh… um so have… have you ever been with a man?”

“Nope, been too scared of what my mother would think. Ended up getting on a boat just so I didn’t have to lie to her about not liking girls,”

“Ah well who knows, maybe if you started talking around you’d be able to find your chance here.”

“Hah I feel like most men who’d like it wouldn’t give it a try,”

“Really? I feel like if you were gay you would know it wouldn’t you?

“Not always, for me it was like that but, for a lot of people they spend their whole lives convincing themselves they’re straight so they never question if they would like men.” Bruno sighed, then took a deep breath and stood up straight, finally making eye contact with me. “I think I can prove it too.”

I don’t know why but I started to get nervous too. Bruno was a lot bigger than I was, making eye contact always gave me the chills, I never really knew what to think about it. I guess I thought that he just intimidated me but I was never scared by him. The opposite really, we became friends instantly, and now well, now in the most inconvenient time I actually felt myself getting hard.

“What do you mean?” My voice was shaky and the words struggled to escape my mouth. I didn’t understand why my body was reacting the way it was anymore. Before I could think myself deeper into a hole I felt Bruno’s arm reach around my body and pull me closer. The next thing I knew he pressed his lips to mine and kissed me. All of the spinning and confusion in my head stopped, and suddenly the only thing I could think about was how happy I felt wrapped in Bruno’s embrace. When he finally pulled away from me it felt like he was dropping me back down on earth. “Oh, I guess that’s what you meant.”